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donkeys first bioweapons Infected rams and donkeys were the earliest bioweapons, according to a new study that dates the use of biological warfare back more than 3300 years.

According to a review published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, two ancient populations, the Arzawans and the Hittites, engaged "in mutual use of contaminated animals" during the 1320-1318 BC Anatolian war.

"The animals were carriers of Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularaemia," says Dr Siro Trevisanato, a molecular biologist based in Ontario, Canada.

Tularaemia, also known as rabbit fever, is a devastating disease that can be fatal, even today, if not treated with antibiotics.

"Moreover, there is evidence that tularaemia can be traced as far back as 2500 BC in the same area, implying that the region was endemic for the bacterium."

According to the researcher, the Hittites, whose empire stretched from modern-day Turkey to northern Syria, were severely hit by the disease after they attacked a weakened area around Simyra.

"The booty and prisoners of war left a contaminated trail," Trevisanato says.

Indeed, the plague spread in the Hittites homeland, and two kings died from it within a few years.

Empire weakened

The weakened Hittite empire attracted the Arzawans from Western Anatolia and a new war began that lasted between 1320 and 1318 BC.

It was at this point that the Hittites used disease-ridden rams and donkeys with the purpose of infecting the enemy.

Records indicate that rams mysteriously began populating the roads in Arzawa. According to Trevisanato, they were sent off by the Hittites, who realised that the animals were involved with spreading the disease.

"The Hittites were weak when the Arzawans attacked them, yet they smashed the enemy within two years. Which kind of secret weapon did they know of to do this Bronze Age blitzkrieg, given their weakened troops and political mess?" says Trevisanato.

To support the bioweapon theory, tablets dating to the 14-13th century BC, describe how a ram and a woman attending the animal were sent on the road, spreading the disease along the way.

"The country that finds them shall take over this evil pestilence," the tablet says.

Taste of their own medicine

The practice was soon understood by the Arzawans who also reacted by sending their own infected rams on the road in the direction of the enemy troops.

Classical folklorist Adrienne Mayor, author of Greek fire, poison arrows and scorpion bombs: biological and chemical weapons in the ancient world, agrees that biological weapons have been used for years.

"I agree that infected rams or donkeys driven into enemy territory by the Hittites may well have been the earliest documented biological weapon in the Near East," she says.

"Even older evidence for ancient understanding of contagion comes from Sumer [modern Syria]. Archaeologists have found several royal letters on cuneiform tablets from the archives of Mari, a town on the Euphrates River.

"The letters, dating to 1770 BC, forbid people from plague-ridden towns to travel to healthy towns, and warn people not to touch or use the personal belongings of infected victims," she says.